Expert: Students talk with agriculture mentor Franz Ott at the International Boys Day Career Breakfast.
Photo by
Simon Ruppert
The inaugural International Boys Day Career Breakfast hosted by Zonta International was hailed a huge success by organiser Christine Haddrick.
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While Zonta is traditionally focused on advancing the status of women in the business world, it decided, in the interest of equality, to offer young men living in the north-east an opportunity to tap into their network of mentors and assist them in their future careers.
“It’s the same theory as the International Girls Day Career Breakfast, which we had here three weeks ago,” Ms Haddrick said.
“International Men’s Day is actually November 21, but sadly that is around exam time so we decided to bring it forward to March.
“We've married the boys up with mentors that match a career they are interested in.
“Quite a few of the boys are interested in defence, so we have a mentor from the RSL.
“One of our guest speakers, Snr Constable Luke Baker, is an ex-army man and then moved into policing.
“We mentor who work in politics so we’ve got a mayor, for example, too.”
Two Benalla schools were represented at the breakfast, FCJ College and Benalla P-12 College.
“Benalla P-12 has the biggest contingency of students here today,” Ms Haddrick said.
Inspiring: Real estate agent Peter Joyce speaking at the International Boys Day Career Breakfast in Wangaratta on Thursday, March 23.
Photo by
Simon Ruppert
“Several schools have commented to us that since COVID some students have been disengaged from school and have missed these types of opportunities,’’ she said.
“To actually be able to come here today has been a very big positive.
"They’ve not had anything like this to inspire them, and to discuss careers and their futures.
“We are planning to make this an annual event. I think there is buzz in the room.
“Young men don’t always like to talk too much, but they are really engaged and are talking with the mentors, and that is the most important thing.
"We hope they take something positive, even if it’s just one little thing, from this breakfast.
“I explained to the boys that we had a girl attend the girls breakfast some years ago.
“She then went off and became a lawyer and for family reasons she had to move back to the area.
“She had kept one of the mentor’s, Alicia Roman’s, business cards. She went and knocked on Alicia’s door and Alicia has now employed her.
“So we try to explain to student that it might not be today. It could be in the future where these mentors could make a difference.”
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